Culture of Origin, Parenting, and Household Labor Supply

This paper analyzes how a cultural trait that values "engagement" in child-rearing activities affects the choice of parents concerning parental investments and labor supply. We use data from the World Value Survey to construct a country-specific measure of parental engagement, which we associate with the time investments in children of first- and second-generation migrants in Australia. We show that migrant parents from more engaged cultures increase their time investment during weekends, in particular in play activities, while spending less time with their children during working days. We also show that these parents are more affectionate and are more likely to discipline the children and to reason about their children's misbehavior than individuals from less engaged cultures. Finally, we provide evidence that culture specific parental engagement features a more egalitarian allocation of parenting vs. labor supply tasks by the couple. We interpret this as indirect evidence that fathers may have a greater marginal utility from parenting time than mothers, on average.